Morning Breakouts

Latest KFF Health News Stories

VA Won’t Help Pay For Service Dogs For Vets With PTSD

Morning Briefing

The Department of Veterans Affairs says it will study what effect specially trained service dogs can have on the lives of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. It takes more than two years and costs about $30,000 to train such a dog.

S.C. Lawmakers To Wrestle With Medicaid Costs, While Calif. Gets Waivers To Implement Reforms

Morning Briefing

The South Carolina Medicaid director says without more legislative funding, the state may have to cut services or reimbursements. In California, officials announced that the federal government has approved plans for some changes. Also, a key Kansas advocate for people with disabilities is retiring.

LifePoint Health Buys Hospitals In Georgia, North Carolina

Morning Briefing

In other regional hospital news, Cleveland officials are urging hospitals against diverting ambulances to emergency rooms that are farther away. And the outgoing director of a St. Louis Veterans Affairs facility talks about changes made at the hospital.

Illinois’ Community Healthcare System Ends Contract With Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield

Morning Briefing

The Chicago Tribune reports that the relationship between the health system and the insurer ended Dec. 31 and is expected to impact the health care choices of thousand of patients. Also, Kaiser Health News notes a trend in which more employers are offering workers critical illness plans.

In 2015, First-Of-A Kind Drug Approvals On The Rise

Morning Briefing

This trend reflected an industry-wide focus on drugs for rare and hard-to-treat diseases. Meanwhile, Gilead’s hepatitis C combo drug gets a Food and Drug Administration priority review, a gene-editing drug maker files for an IPO and some testing of another drug is suspended.

Medicare Getting Revamp In 2016

Morning Briefing

Among the changes coming this year, Medicare will pay clinicians to counsel patients about options for care at the end of life, and beneficiaries will be able to pick an Accountable Care Organization.

Administration Urges Supreme Court To Strike Down Texas Abortion Regulations

Morning Briefing

“Those requirements are unnecessary to protect – indeed, would harm – women’s health,” U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli wrote in a friend-of-the-court brief for the first abortion case the high court has heard in almost a decade.

Rep. McDermott, Fierce Health Law Proponent, Retiring

Morning Briefing

Washington Rep. Jim McDermott, a Democrat, says he will spend the rest of the year working on a mental health reform bill. Meanwhile, the House returns Tuesday to vote on some unfinished business, including a bill repealing the health law, which CBO says would save a half-trillion dollars.

Obama Addresses Mental Health In Executive Actions On Gun Control

Morning Briefing

In new regulations to address gun violence to be announced Tuesday, the administration will lay out its plan to direct $500 million toward mental health care, overhaul the background-check system and allow health care providers to disclose some information on mentally ill patients to the FBI. Republicans say the move is a misuse of power.